Course Schedule

8/23 Historical Overview of Patriarchy and Misogyny in Western Culture

8/25 Biblical Sources and Commentary:

Genesis, Ch 1 (26-27); Ch. 2 (22-24); 1 Timothy Ch. 2; Ephesians Ch. 5

St. Jerome (c. 320-420): On Marriage and Virginity, From Letter XXII to Eustochium and from the treatise Against Jovinian

Oxford Companion to the Bible, Outlines and Commentary:
Genesis
1 Timothy
General Introduction to Scholarly Interpretation of the Bible

8/30 Elaine Pagels, "Introduction" and Chapter 3 from The Gnostic Gospels

Further Reading:
Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter on the Dignity of Women

First Reading Response Due: Questions

9/1 Geoffrey Chaucer, from The Canterbury Tales"The General Prologue," (especially the portrait of the Prioress [ll. 118-162] and the portrait of the Wife of Bath [ll. 447-478]

HTML Version of the General Prologue

Study Guide for "The General Prologue"

9/6 Chaucer, from The Canterbury Tales "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"

HTML Version of the Wife of Bath's Prologue

HTML Version of the Wife of Bath's Tale

Timothy D. O'Brien, "Seductive Violence and Three Chaucerian Women."

Second Reading Response Due: Questions

9/8 Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, "Introduction through Ch. 56"

9/13 Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, Ch. 57-"Epilogue"

Images discussed in The Da Vinci Code

The Controversy about The Da Vinci Code

Third Reading Response Due: Questions

9/15 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV (Note: Especially lines 408-492)

Study Guide for Paradise Lost, Book IV

C. Froula, "When Eve Reads Milton"

Elaine Pagels, from Adam, Eve and the Serpent
9/20 Milton, Paradise Lost, Book V (Note: Especially lines 26-156)

Study Guide for Paradise Lost, Book V
Paradise Lost, Book VIII (Note: Especially lines 532-790)

First Study Guide for Paradise Lost, Book VIII (Note this study guide is for Book IX of the 1674 edition of Paradise Lost, but it corresponds to the first part of Book VIII of the 1667 edition which I have made available for you to read on line.)

Second Study Guide for Paradise Lost, Book VIII (Note this study guide is for Book IX of the 1674 edition of Paradise Lost, but it corresponds to the second part of Book VIII of the 1667 edition which I have made available for you to read on line.)

Fourth Reading Response Due: Questions

9/22 Mary Wollestonecraft, from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

Lawrence Stone, from The Family, Sex and Marriage in England

9/27 Mary Wollestonecraft, A Vindication ...

Fifth Reading Response Due: Questions

9/29 Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"

10/4 Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"

Resources on A Room of One's Own" prepared by Dr. Rose Norman

Sixth Reading Response Due: Questions

10/6 Simone de Beauvoir, from The Second Sex: "Introduction"

10/11 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex: Ch. 1: "Biology"

The Second Sex: Ch. 2: "Psychoanalysis"

Seventh Reading Response Due: Questions

Further Reading: Marc Fonda's Synopsis of Freud's Three Essays on Sexuality; Terry Eagleton, "Psychoanalysis"

10/13 In class film: excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

10/18 In class film: excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

10/20 In class film: excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

10/25 In class film: excerpts from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

10/27 In class film: excerpts from Brian de Palma's Body Double

11/1 Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema "

Ann Cvetkovich, "Postmodern Vertigo"

Eighth Reading Response Due: Questions

Further Reading on Psychoanalysis and Feminsism
Luce Irigaray, "This Sex Which Is Not One"
Luce Irigaray, "Psychoanalytic Theory: Another Look"

11/3 Octavia Butler, Kindred

11/8 Octavia Butler, Kindred

11/10 Octavia Butler, Kindred

11/15 Octavia Butler, Kindred

Nancy Jesser, "Blood Genes and Gender"
James Davis, Chapter 3 from Who is Black?

Ninth Reading Response Due: Questions

Further Reading:
James Davis, Chapter 1 from Who is Black?
James Davis, Chapter 2 from Who is Black?
Brent Stapes, "Why Race Isn't as 'Black' and 'White' as We Think"
Julia Preston, "For '73 Rape Victim, DNA Revives Horror, Too"
Julia Preston, "After 3 Decades, Guilty Verdict in Rape Case, With Help From DNA "

11/17 The Crying Game

Screenplay for The Crying Game

11/29 The Crying Game

12/1 The Crying Game
12/6 Judith Butler, from "Gender Trouble"

Peter N. Chumo, II, "The Crying Game, Hitchcockian Romance , ..."

Leonard Sax, "How Common is Intersex?"

Tenth Reading Response Due: Questions

12/8 Conclusion